On Tuesday, Provost Mark McNamee announced the appointment of Jerzy Nowak as the founding director of the new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. Nowak's wife, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, was killed in Norris Hall on April 16 while teaching her French class.
Since then, Nowak has been passionately involved in the center's creation, making him an ideal appointment for the position of founding director.
His emotional involvement with the creation and mission of the Center will only help a program with such aspirations get that much closer to the solutions it seeks for some of the world's toughest issues.
The job is not an objective one and requires much more than a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. commitment. It will require Nowak's passion for his wife's legacy to jump-start the program, and he has already proven he is willing to put in the effort.
Prior to his appointment, Nowak has spent the months since April 16 working on building new programs with purposes similar to that of the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention, presenting formal proposals within the university and to the Governor's panel.
It is clear he has a goal in mind and will work tirelessly toward it.
On top of his unequivocal emotional attachment to the center, Nowak has worldly experience to bring to discussions of peace.
He has lived in Poland, Germany, Nigeria and Canada, teaching and conducting research, before he came to Tech in 2000 where he has been serving as the head of the Department of Horticulture.
Nowak's perspectives from many other countries and cultures will give the center and its students a great resource.
Scholars and students within the center will be able to achieve a bigger picture of the issues affecting peace by working with first-hand accounts of its status throughout the world.
Getting the center off the ground will not be an easy task, and Nowak's passion, grief and expertise will be vital to its success.
The editorial board is composed of David Harries and Lauren Lee
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"His emotional involvement with the creation and mission of the Center will only help a program with such aspirations get that much closer to the solutions it seeks for some of the world's toughest issues. " Unfortunately, high emotional involvement always leads to emotional decisions, as opposed to informed ones. I fear this "peace center" will turn into a political campaign all too quickly.
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"A political campaign" for what?
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So far so good. I hope editorial board this year won't be as bad as that of last year.
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keep up the good work, david and lauren. :)
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""A political campaign" for what?" --- Look at the history of organizations for "peace" and what they advocate, and you'll see. The VT center will have different funding (I hope) than the organizations I speak of, so hopefully this will be different. All too often, "peace centers" are run by left-wing crazies (see also: Obama)
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"Scholars and students within the center will be able to achieve a bigger picture of the issues affecting peace by working with first-hand accounts of its status throughout the world." Doesn't this amount to reading a bunch of newspapers?
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Hey May 21 and June 2, no worries. Nowak is surely a Republican. Oh wait!, then he would be a member of the "start a war, ask questions later" mindset. never mind.
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To HistoryRepeats: War is not always the answer, but neither is peace. Those who believe that the answer to volatile situations is to endlessly negotiate are often just as delusional as those who rush into aggressive action.
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To Jason T: once a life is taken, it's gone. A volatile situation has never been calmed or resolved by bombing and invading.
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The incident of 4/16 has nothing to do with "peace" or global conflicts, but rather the forced victimization of students as a result of Virginia Tech's misguided guns-free campus rules. This "peace center" will quickly morph into another incubator for rabid anti-Western dogma.
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Better to counter the Western "shoot first, ask questions later" dogma, where we all can have a gun. Keep working toward that world, and your dreams will be realized. Then finally a 4-year old wont have to borrow grandma's gun to shoot herself.
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HistoryRepeats, actually warfare has solved several problems. It resulted in the end of World War 2. To a bleeding heart such as yourself, do you feel someone like Cho is not worth exterminating had he been arrested and tried for the murders? You people amaze me with your compassion for cold-blooded killers.
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Sean, you may recall that World War 2 was started by others and they lost. So what exactly did it accomplish? Someone like Cho might be worth exterminating, but it shouldn't be with the tacit acknowledgement and support of the public, through government, when even just one of the citizenry doesn't support it, and his parents probably wouldn't. However, I'm not opposed to allowing any family member of a victim do the exterminating. You bloodthirsty people amaze me with your willingness to exterminate others when you haven't been the victim of their crimes. Kinda like Cho?
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